I recently stumbled upon a nice photo of a whole bunch of people, all in Team Fatty kit. Check it out:

Say, that’s a good-sized group of people wearing the Fat Cyclist jersey! Awesome.

But…hey. Waitasec. Upon closer inspection, I’m not sure those people are part of Team Fatty! And, is it possible that those aren’t Team Fatty jerseys? Let’s take a closer look at a couple of those people:

Yeah, something weird is going on here. For one thing, instead of “FatCyclist.com” over the left breast, those jerseys say “Hincapie.” Even weirder, that’s definitely not the distinctive Rearing Clydesdale inside the orange circle. But otherwise, it looks a lot like my jersey. You know, the one that looks like this:

Collar’s the same, sleeves are the same, stripes are the same, colors are the same.

It’s eerie. Almost as if someone has taken the hard work that Twin Six does, along with the meaning that my blog gives to this look, and took it, without permission.

But you know, maybe I’m not being fair. Probably that jersey only looks the same as mine from the front. I’ll bet the design from the rear is totally different. For example, here’s what the back of my 2010 jersey looks like:

See? Totally different, as long as by “totally different” you mean “swap out the horse for a sketch of people riding a tandem, swap out the text for other text, and swap out the URL for your own URL.”

Ah, so it looks like the folks at pedalingforparkinsons.org stole my jersey design. And by “stole,” I mean “Took it without asking, nor ever made any acknowledgement to me or Twin Six of what they were doing.”

Implications

Honestly, it’s incredibly inspirational to see the work Twin Six did for me so “faithfully replicated,” and to know that it’s totally cool to, you know, just kinda take stuff. Without asking. Because I’ve been thinking of branching my product line out a bit, and this really simplifies the design work and permissions process. For example, I think you’ll all really like the coffee I’ll be selling:

And my very own line of automobiles:

And I’m going to be having a Pro Cycling Team!

Congratulations, by the way, to my team for taking first and second in my new race, the Fat Cyclist Tour of California.

Of course, you’ll be able to buy all this merchandise at the new Fat Cyclist / Target Store:

I sure hope they don’t get away with this long, I mean it is great that they are trying to fundraise but come on people lets get creative and do a little designing here, not just take a look at your kit and change the picture. LAME and great find.

Spank!
Well applied and richly deserved.
FYI, Fatty, three years ago when we started running the 100MilesToNowhere: The Dobson Ranch Edition, in conjunction with the 100 Miles of Nowhere, I contacted Twin Six to see if I could get a copy of the 100Miles graphics to feature on our start/finish poster and the facebook page. The Twin Six guys quickly and politely declined, explaining that they wanted their relationship with you to be exclusive and special, which I understood and appreciate.
Keep up the good work and good posts.

hhmmm not so hot. but on another note, last year i did ask your permission to make use of the 100miles of nowhere idea to raise money for alocal charity organisation who work with Childhood cancers (CHOC) given that LIVESTRONG don’t exactly have a big footprint if any (i’m not aware of one yet?!) here in South Africa, you said it was fine and we should go for it as we were raising money to fight cancer. so I wanted to let you know that we are a go! a friend wanted to raise money for CHOC and i told her what i wanted to do so, we have 10 confirmed South African entries who have so far raised R1600 (which is a good start!) for CHOC! and as a huge favour would you be so kind as to tweet this link (blog or facebook is also great ;-))…

Last year Lauren raised over R4500 for the pink drive (breast cancer) and this year she wants to ride with “the choc cow herd” at the 94.7 cycle callenge, but to do that she has to raise a minimum of R5000 to do so. she is an amazing young 14year old who is passionate about cycling and people. she is currently the under14 provincial champion and is leading her age category for a local cycle series, but her focus is on helping others first and foremost and her cycling acheivements are for her a platform and means to do this.

At first glance I thought “maybe it’s an honest actual design of theirs that just LOOKS similar to yours”. Upon closer inspection of the pics, NOT A CHANCE! They must have had one of your jerseys to so completly copy every detail…the black w/ orange bands at the sleeve ends, the logo on the back w/ black circle and the orange band inside, interrupted at the top and bottom for the white text, the black collar w/ the orange band (you can see the edge of it barely looking at the guy on the right), and the side black strip w/ orange text (again, see that on the guy on the right).

What a bunch of BS! It’s a total knockoff! You (and TwinSix) should have words. At first I thought this was a joke post (gasp, you wouldn’t do THAT, would you?) but it’s real and unbelievable! Geez, they didn’t even TRY to change the colors or anything. How very sad. And these were made by Hincape Sports? You have to wonder if THEY knew it was a knockoff design, or if it was submitted by somebody else and they just produced it. If they knew, SHAME SHAME SHAME! Fatty, you know people…give big George a call and have him smack his brother around. NOT COOL!

If they are raising money for a good cause, what is everyone so upset about? Sure, they could have done a better job, but I have a hard time getting upset about money being raised for a good cause. Aren’t there more important things we can get upset about?

I’ll be wearing my offical Fatty jersey during RAGBRAI this year. Maybe you could send me some official Fatty rebar to toss in their tires when I see them on the road…on second though, rebar might be a little too heavy to carry on the ride, I’ll keep brainstorming that idea.

Keith, I also work for a charity, and we try to follow the law. If we don’t follow laws, then how can anyone trust us to spend money wisely or on what we say we do?

I have never believed charities should be held to a lower standard than the rest of society. It just encourages bad people to go into the charity biz (there are plenty of “raising awareness” charities that are not charities at all but moneymaking vehicles). Rather, charities should be held to a higher standard.

My understanding is we spend lots of money on licensing and auditing of our licenses to prove we are legit to donors, this applies to software as well as marketing materials. We have many strict policies re: marketing materials and logos.

A smaller charity may not be able to spend all that money we do, but they can always design things in house, or ask designers to design something as a charitable donation. There are ways to comply with laws and still save money

Hi Fatty, my firm just released the annual ethics in business document to employees, before you get the PPP.org folks checking out your site – you may want to drop the “Meet sexy local girls” ad on the sidebar above your weight chart. might negate the moral indignation factor.

Just sayin..

keep up the good work.

Actually, my ad provider shows you ads based on your browser history. Hmmmmm.
(I kid, I kid. But seriously, I’ve never seen the ad you’re talking about.) – FC

Huh…never saw these folks on RAGBRAI 2010. Obviously not in the “Hit the road by 9 or later” crowd I run with. I’ll be on the lookout this year and give ‘em a little ribbing or other abuse for their poor choice of design theft.

Can’t tell from the photo Fatty, but is the guy on the far left in a black T-shirt wearing a Fatty “knock-off” too? A “No, You go on. I’m riding thief today” T-shirt? That would be apropos for this group.

I think it’s interesting that on the Hincapie custom clothing site, they say, “Make a sketch, do a computer mockup, or find a picture of a design you have in mind. Or let our experienced artists design something original for your team! If you have your own designer, you can download copies of our art guidelines and templates.”

To me, that “or find a picture of a design you have in mind” is basically saying, “Sure, it’s okay to copy someone else’s design.” What kind of self-respecting design and production facility is willing to take “a picture of a design you have mind” and just copy the design?

Wow! I find it extremely hard to believe that the fine folks at Hincapie sportswear did not even recognize the infringement. Certainly they know of Fatty and the good stuff he’s been doing for awhile. Even little ol’ me saw the videos from a couple years ago when Fatty visited and rode with Team Radioshack.

Makes me wonder about the effects of Parkinsons on the clothing ordering process!

Wow. twelve years as a marketing and graphic design professional.http://www.pedalingforparkinsons.org/bios
And part of Frazier Cycling and Coaching. And you think the PFP Jersey idea came from whole cloth? I look forward to her, mea culpa, ‘guest post’ on this site.

Mine bounced as well. Here’s a link to the contact page for Frazier Cycling, where she works with her husband, Coach Frazier. http://www.fraziercycling.com/contact.htm I sent my message to her via that route, too.

Apparently Ms. Frazier also suffers from Parkinson’s Disease (see the ‘Research’ tab on their website). Not an excuse, but I think that it is quite possible that she is (was) unaware of the copy-cat jersy.

The Team Fatty jersey looks so much better anyway, much more professional and stylish (not that it makes it alright to steal the design). Makes sense though, without the original context, inspiration and spirit that the Fatty jerseys were made in, even an inanimate object like a jersey just doesn’t ‘come alive’. Highlights Fatty and Twin Six for the awesome designers they are :-)

I knew I saw them at Ragbrai last summer!! I kept thinking, oh!! a Team Fatty member I can strike up a conversation with…then I’d ride up on them and was always disappointed. I thought the jerseys were close, I never realized until now they were identical!

I am deployed, so sadly, will not be able to angrily glare at them this year, but they’d better watch out on Ragbrai 2012!!

Glad to see the internet vigilantie mob in full swing here (it always works out so well), i’m sure the point will be made really well with lots of nasty emails to this lady for trying to raise money for their particular charity. It is great to see a bunch of people who are apaprently fighting cancer which tragically cuts peoples lives short by wasting their time against a bunch of harmless folk who at the end of the day are trying to do a good.

Yes they could have done it better but no way does it warrent the amount of hate that has filled these comments. I aprticularly like the “let’s sure them” comment, because we all know wasting money on lawyers is a great way to fight cancer.

Fatty – I would totally buy that coffee! I am really excited about this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Actualy, phil, I do not think there has been that much hate expressd – just some righteous indignation and empathy about a cheap shot taken at a very small but great design firm – T6 – and a relatively unprofitable but charitably inclined and award winning blog brand.

Phil
you are missing the point yes they are doing good but they are also STEALING! Twin six and Fatty worked on that design. Should we excuse their theft because they are doing good? is it ok to break the law if it’s for a good cause? If I steal your car as long as I’m giving rides to little old ladies and orphans can I get a pass for the theft? I’m not saying hang them I’m saying hold them accountable for their actions. If its a mistake or misunderstanding fine rectify it, if not discontinue using the design.

Stealing is stealing. As a designer I have to do a lot of research before introducing a new logo / design etc. to the public to make sure it has not being done before. The Fat Cyclist design is well known within the cycling community and I can’t believe the thief would think he/she could get away with that!

Personally, I would doubt the the honesty and integrity of any charity that STEALS in an effort to promote their cause. Furthermore, I would not want to be a sponsor of such a charity.

STEALING IS STEALING!!! There are no justifications but there may have been outright intentions by said charity to trick donors and sponsors by “drafting off” the long history and hard work of Fatty and his followers.

The question is, if this group had contacted Fatty and said “we really like your Orange colourway and some of the design cues, and by the way could you put us in touch with someone who’s really good at designing fashionable bike wear at a reputable company?” … Would you have said “yes, and here’s the person at Twin Six with whom I work, tell them Fatty sent you”?

I was quite shocked to receive your email. I am in no way responsible for the design of the current Pedaling for Parkinsons (PFP) jersey. I participated in the first PFP RAGBRAI ride in 2003 and then again in 2004. Yes, I did design our original jerseys – they were red and white . See below (not much similarity to your jersey). My connection to PFP is that I am the original “poster child” for this organization – I have PD and during this ride it was discovered that my symptoms improved. This has since led to some amazing research in how tandem cycling improves the quality of life for PD patients. And although I still officially hold the position of VP of PFP on paper, I have not been involved with them since 2004.

I would appreciate it if you would give me the name of the individual who had implicated me so I can get this taken care of quickly. I would also appreciate it if you could pass this email on to your friends and to “Fat Cyclist”. I could have shared this with you before if you had just asked me.

I sense an old fashioned gunfight at OK Corral fund raising opportunity here. Team Fatty vs. PFP. Winners get to keep their jerseys. Losers have to send their washed jerseys to a worthy cause (World Bicycle Relief?). Hincapie fashions needs to pony up the schwag.

No Deal. My FC Jersey along with my 100 Miles gear are part of my kit that I hope will evoke questions and conversation that will turn to people onto Livestrong, World Bike Relief and an award winning blog (water bottle post aside) so there is no way I’ll be giving mine up….sorry.

I don’t think this email from Cathy Frazier makes me feel any better. Not only do they steal your jersey design, they have a “poster child” that has not been affiliated with the organization in 7 years. Yet holds the VP Chair.

I have had family members pass away from Parkinson’s and I am very sympathetic to the cause. But, I’m wondering about the validity of this particular organization.

Fatty and Twin 6 do have a valid complaint. I think a great idea to show our true Fatty colors would be for all of us to make a donation to Pedal for Parkinson’s to provide our support.

As I said Twin 6 and Fatty have every right to be upset with the blatant unauthorized use of the Fatty brand and Twin 6 design. But I’m not sure our unhapiness should be with Pedal for Parkinson’s as it should be with Hincapie Sports. They should have some type of controls in place to ensure they are not party to this type of unauthorized design use. As previously mentioned by another poster, they should take the ideas they receive and do some research to ensure the product that they create is in fact unique.

I hope Ms. Frazier realizes that by agreeing she is the VP on paper and being one of two faces on the website, she may be held liable in court for the actions of the organization under law. I’m sure there are many reputable PD charities for which people can donate, but I can’t imagine donating to an organization whose VP denies involvement. I’m not sure why she would want her email passed along. It’s just plain poor business.

I hesitate to think a lawsuit is needed to rectify this situation. I’m sure Twin 6 has already sent a letter from their lawyer to Hincapie Sports warning them of the infringement, though, as they should. Sorry to Fatty and Twin 6 for having to deal with this unfortunate distraction!

While I admire your willingness to support fundraising efforts, AngieG… Considering how close the two jerseys are we have to assume that someone intentionally based the Pedalling for Parkinson’s jersey off of the Fat Cyclist jersey. Considering how easy it is to make small icon and lettering changes (and also, how poorly the icon is done – even on their website it’s horrendously pixelated in a way no designer would ever allow to happen. Vectors are just too easy to create) it’s a fair assumption that it was done by someone within Pedaling for Parkinson, hoping to save the organization a buck or two by not hiring designers.

I’m an artist and I used to do my own merchandising and I know how easy it is to submit pictures to a website and have printers do a run – blaming Hincapie Printing assumes that whoever approved the item run would have OBVIOUSLY known about Fat Cyclist, and as much as we all love Fatty, you have to admit most of the world is unaware of him. It’s really not the job of a printer to track down every single piece of material they’re printing and check for pre-existing copyrates, usages, or permissions to use. It that were the case all our club jerseys would suddenly be 3x the cost, as printers have to hire researchers.

I am willing to believe that whoever ripped off the design was just trying to do a good deed – possibly didn’t even consider it the theft of intellectual property. I often find bits and pieces of my artwork being used in strange places I never approved – a lot of people can’t understand that everything on the internet isn’t freely available for personal use.

Fatty Followers,
I sent Fatty the an email this AM after reading a few emails sent to me regarding this post (see below). I think the email pretty much explains the situation and quite frankly my not doing due diligence by following up with or contacting Fatty. I will add three points to the email I sent this AM based on a quick glance of the comments above.
1) Cathy was not involved in any phase of the design process or approval of proofs. Don’t bash her, it was my mistake.
2) PFP is a small non-profit trying to bring cycling programs to Parkinson’s disease patients because these programs have been shown to be effective in improving PD symptoms. These programs really empower patients to take a more active role in the treatment of their disease rather than rely entirely on medication or surgical interventions. For those who have family members or friends affected by PD you understand how giving someone a little bit of control over this control-robbing disease is meaningful.
3) The concept of a “fund raising throwdown” as someone suggested is interesting. I would be open to discussing that possibility, though let’s not make it a throwdown, I think Fatty and PFP share many common elements and maybe we could figure out a way to further the missions of both groups.

I rec’d a couple of emails regarding the Pedaling for Parkinson’s jersey last year for RAGBRAI. Your jersey was absolutely the inspiration for ours last year. I contacted Twin Six asking if they would help us out with a design like yours and they said they were too busy (which I completely understand because their stuff is by far the best designs in the business) but they sent me the pantone color codes for the jersey as I indicated I would like to do something similar in terms of design and color.

My mistake and sincere apologies for not contacting or including you on that communication, I absolutely should have included you. I certainly appreciate that you want to keep your brand “clean” and distinctive (I like the Fatty Coffee concept). The jerseys were only given to the team members and never offered for sale and I only ordered enough for the team in that photo and maybe a couple more for sizing issues.

Rest assured that I will not repeat this mistake as we design new jerseys for the team each year. Of course, I would welcome an opportunity to collaborate on a design regarding cycling and its potential impact on Parkinson’s disease and some forms of cancer. Our data indicate that high cadence cycling actually changes brain functioning (we had an fMRI image on a previous jersey and a flaming brain as well). While the underlying mechanism is unknown, we appear to be altering neurotrophic factors within the brain. The alteration of these factors could have implications in some forms of cancer or the co-morbidities associated with cancer. We are hoping to do a pilot study in endometrial cancer patients in the near future…I will keep you posted on its progress.

Again, my sincere apologies. Keep up the great work and feel free to share this email with your Team Fat Cyclist followers.

I’m conflicted. The harsh response from many of us loyal to Team Fatty is perhaps both justified and overwrought. It’s easy to be offended the design was stolen, but those with a horse in the race are the best to deal with it directly.

I think a nice spoof piece and public shaming is a good way to both make me laugh and deal with the issue but the exchange afterwards in these comments leaves me feeling a little dirty. They stole the design. They admit to doing so. They apologized. Singling out a single person for targeted communication from the masses who have no legal standing to make any kind of case seems poor form to me.

You know, while I think we all admire their cause.. They actually didn’t apologize. They apologized for not telling fatty they were stealing the design, not for stealing it. He defended his misappropriation of someone else’s design by saying it made no money… which has a standing as a defense. However they -still- chose to use someone else’s known brand to promote themselves and that’s morally if not legally wrong.

From what he said, Twin Six gave him the colours for him to make his own design… not permission to use their design whole part and parcel. I find it hard to believe that Twin Six would have given them carte blanche on the jersey design for what’s probably their best known product (A design template that has been seen on the cover of major cycling publications), much less that they would have given it away without at least alerting Fatty. Seriously, there was no apology here for what they did, only an apology for not telling Fatty they were ripping him off.

I was outraged initially, but reading JAlbert’s response, I’m thinking it might all be a lot more innocent than I could have initially imagined.

Ripping Fatty off? Or just Twin Six? Depending on Fatty’s ‘deal’ with Twin Six, it seems possible that nothing (protectable) of Fatty’s was stolen, since all the ripped off elements seem to be of design.

Kinda makes me wonder whether Twin Six was consulted before this initial post went up.

Even if we had the whole original conversation between Twin Six and JAlbert things _might_ not be all that clear. Permission given to create a similar jersey for another good cause? Honest misunderstanding?

No one at Twin Six has any recollection or email trail of providing Jay Albert/PFP color direction. We certainly would never give anyone permission to copy a Twin Six jersey design. It’s unfortunate that the PFP jerseys were more than slightly inspired by the jersey that we designed for Fatty. We are very proud of the work we have done with Fatty and the money we helped Team Fatty raise for LAF and World Bicycle Relief. We wish that we could do this for everyone. There are a lot of great designers out there that would be willing to donate their time for worthy causes. In the future, take advantage of their talents.
T6

Many years ago when I was in high school I started making own webpage. I found a nice icon on a church website that I wanted to use for my email icon. I didn’t ask permission, but I did make a slight alteration to it (stopped the gif movement and reversed it). A few days later I received an email from the church asking me to take it down as it was their image, and they preferred NOT taking legal action against me. Needless to say that introduced me to the legal aspect of using someone elses design, etc.

Should Fatty or Twin 6 fight to keep their designs? Yes! Just like Apple or Windows, it’s part of their brand and it makes them money in some fashion. As soon as you let one person go, you open the flood gate and the next person can use it too and you lose the ability to control your design. Whether they apologize or not is up to them, but the fact is they cribbed the design plain and simple. Charity or not, they still have laws to follow. Just because they used it to raise money for a good cause is irrelevant. Theft is theft.

It stinks that it was a charity that did this, but if they have been around for awhile and have people in marketing they should know better.

If you let it go, then others will follow and do the same thing. Especially if Fatty wants to take his charity efforts to the next level, he will unfortunately have to fight battles like this from time to time.

Pedaling for Parkinson’s sounds like a good cause and I hope moving forward they will take advantage of the offers (some in this thread) to help them out with an original design and to learn and improve as an organization – it does impact people’s perception of who to support if the organization is perceived as behaving unethically. Consider the difference in support if they’d contacted Fatty up-front, in addition to offers to design the jersey he’d probably have invited them to do a “guest blog” and the generous folks here might well have swung some donations their way. (In fact Fatty, why not give them a guest blog? After all you gave time to Luis whats-his-name…)

I’d like it better if PfP apologized for swiping the design; even if as Jay says (and T6 does not recall) “they sent me the pantone color codes for the jersey as I indicated I would like to do something similar in terms of design and color” the design developed is more like “copy” than “similar” and strangely – the colors (tone of orange etc) are one thing that differs!!!!!

Us Yanks love a good lawsuit because 90% of us are Lawyers and the other 10% get the day off from work/school when we have to sit on the jury!

I agree with my European counterpart, what exactly to you plan to win out of a lawsuit besides both charities losing money?
There are twice as many people who have posted Comments on this thread than there are people who own one of these rip off jerseys. And the event was last year.
It’s a bit annoying but time to move on.

As an IP Attorney I’ll tell you this (and I’ll mention to our friends across the pond that you guys are a whole lot more aggressive in this arena than we are… go check out “moral rights.”)

It’s theft pure and simple.

I don’t care what their charity is, how poor they are or how great their cause may be. I also don’t care how much they apologize. Their damages may be reduced because they didn’t sell the jerseys but it doesn’t negate the fact that they lifted them.
It’s up to T6 and Fatty to deal with it (or not, their call) but no one should leave this discussion under the impression that there was anything okay with what was done here or think that violations of Intellectual Property can just be swept under the rug. This is bread and butter for how companies protect themselves and their branding and it is taken very seriously.

High cadence cycling improves brain function might be the single best tidbit of information in the comments. I found the post hilarious as usual and plan on driving my fattymobile on over to fattybucks for a triple latte mocha right before I get more FC gear FC Target.

Just to let you know.. I retweeted a comment about the jersey brouhaha and included @Ghincapie and @twinsix_Brent. For my effort I got blocked by Big George. Fatty design theft is just as bad as someone stealing physical property.. I’m ashamed of PFP and their made up email trail, and of Hincapies lack of due diligence.. And Big George, I’ll miss seeing your tweets….

I do wonder if Jay has the email from Twin Six – I would certainly keep something like that to cover my backside. I do feel better knowing they didn’t sell any of the jerseys, but only a little better.

Elden/Fatty: That was a classy response to Jay’s email. I happen to know a bit about Pedaling For Parkinson’s–my wife has Parkinson’s Disease and is cyclist shown on the stationary bike in your blog, next to our friend who also has PD. After being diagnosed, she learned of Jay’s research on how fast paced cycling can relieve PD symptoms. Next thing I knew, we were signed up to ride RAGBRAI with Jay and PFP. At the end of that ride, my wife turned to Jay and said “You saved my life.” OK, that may have been a bit enhanced by the euphoria of the moment, but in fact the cycling protocol discovered by Jay allows her to roll back her physical and cognitive PD symptoms and reduce her medication. Now she can actively engage the disease rather than just refilling her prescription. It has also motivated her to establish programs at the community level to get other PD patients on tandems and solo stationary bikes. I don’t have to tell you that helping others is in itself a means of therapy. So, keep up your magnificent work on behalf of funding cancer research (we just made a contribution on your Livestrong page), and if you know of anyone with Parkinson’s Disease, have them contact PFP or us. And if you ever get the chance, take a ride with Jay — he’s a great guy.

This sure make a person NOT trust PfP. First President Jay says he was “inspired” by the Team Fatty jersey(so he stole it)….then he says he got the colors from T6 (he LIES). My donations will go to OTHER Parkinson’s charities. NOT PfP. Why reward them for their unethical behavior?

@PaulGuyot – you said it best.
Jay hides behind his charity, while he is dishonest to Fatty and his supporters.
Without a doubt, the Pedaling for Parkinsons organization has done wrong, and it would be an embarrasment to wear that copycat jersey in public.